I Love 4-H!

The girls are in full 4-H mode. It is actually quite time consuming. If I had realized it before, I would have had them both working on the same project. It's hard because I want them to do what interests them, but it means we have 5 meetings a month for 4-H. It keeps us busy!

Nevertheless, it is such a great program. The kids and parents in the program are all friendly and kind- the type of people I want my kids to look up to. And the skills they are learning are important- skills they will use the rest of their lives.

Last weekend was Grandma's Birthday, and Claire and Audra were put to work. Here is their creation from marshmallows and sprinkles:

 Then, last night Claire went to her first sewing class. I am really excited because a 12-year-old is going to be teaching her. I love this for several reasons- the 12 year old is getting leadership credit for her 4-H project, and Claire gets to learn from a peer.

Last night she made a petal purse. She got to sew it all herself and everything. It is very neat to see her able to create something so beautiful all by herself:

Three Girls On A Ladder

Is there anything cuter? I mean really- anything?

You Know It's Serious...

When you get to wear mom's apron!

Valentine's Day

Happy Valentine's Day!

Audra was disappointed that we didn't do MORE for Valentine's Day. I think a skate party with a million Valentine's is plenty, but apparently a 7-year-old requires more. I do not envy her future significant other.

Tonight we ordered Papa Murphy's heart shaped pizza- it seems to be a yearly tradition. Then, we made some chocolate fondue for dessert. That was a huge hit, and it was nice to finally bust out the fondue maker that we got for our wedding and have only used once. Any great fondue making secrets or recipes out there that I should know about?

The girls made us cards and gave me a bag of candy that they put together from their leftover Halloween candy. Ben got no candy from them- hehe. I'm not sharing:) He's alright, though, because I got him some Mocorons from Trader Joe's because while in Vegas I got some and LOVED them, but he was worried to try them because I couldn't tell if they had nuts in them or not. Now he finally gets to try them- with, hopefully, no allergic reaction.

The Zoo: By Audra

Yesterday Audra wrote her very first poem. It was entirely on her own- I read poems to the girls and they have memorized several poems, but we have never gone over structure or form. Nevertheless, I am sure you will agree that she did pretty awesome:

The Zoo

By Audra

The zoo is fun

The zoo is fun

I love the zoo.

I see the cat,

And the dog, And

the bears.

Then I eat lunch.

And the dog, cat,

And the bears.

Stare at me.

The Zoo

We finally made good on our promise to take the girls to the zoo today- and there was much rejoicing! Camille was so super cute, with her big sisters jumping up and down yelling "We're going to the zoo today! We're going to the zoo today!"

 The matching shirts were a HUGE hit. We got several compliments, but most importantly: It was SO easy to spot our kids! It was obvious we were a group and we could easily find each other if one of them started to run off or something. Genius!

 Camille got tired out and curled up in the stroller. We know it was a successful trip because all three of the girls fell asleep on the ride home! Wow!

Side note: Camille said her favorite animal was the snake. I did not see that coming.

Cake Decorating

We signed Audra and Claire up for 4-H. Audra has chosen to learn cake decorating.

Above is her first attempts at cake decorating. The teacher had the decorate cupcakes using a stencil, candies to make a penguin, and using the star tip. I think she did quite well.

Below: Since she is in cake decorating and needs to practice, she is now in charge of all cake decorating at our house. Ben got his review at work, and it was worthy of  a "Congratulations" cookie, so Audra was put to work. It says, "Congrats." It was her first time using the writing tip. She was very proud of how it turned out.

Valentine's Party

Yesterday I took the girls to a homeschool Valentine's Party at the skating rink. It was so fun! Audra even held hands with a boy, apparently. It was actually really sweet- she was struggling, and a boy held her hand to help her around the rink. She also made a friend with another girl, but she forgot her name so that was a bummer.

There were a lot of families there, and it was really neat to see all the different homeschooling families- to feel a part of a larger community.

All three girls made Valentines- 55 each. Whew! When we got there, they decorated Valentine's bags and lined them up with all the others.

Camille had a great time- she was so excited to finally be allowed to skate! At first she held my hand super tight. But, eventually she let go and wanted to be completely on her own. She fell a million times, but didn't mind at all.

This was Camille's face the whole time. I think it is one of excitement?

Camille Update

Awhile ago I posted about the difficulty of Camille's sleeping. She insisted on sleeping with the light on.

The solution we came up with was putting a 3 watt lightbulb in her light, and that seems to work perfectly. But, man, if you forget and turn the light off, there are massive sobs of horror- so you should not forget to leave the light on.

Well, her other interesting situation is that she hates to sleep in her bed. Or with covers. For a long while she would only sleep on her changing pad, which we keep on the floor. Every night when we go in to put her back in bed, we simply have no idea what we will get. Sometimes her feet will be on her changing pad with the rest of her body on the floor. Sometimes she will be on the wrong end of her bed on top of all of her covers. One night we found her curled up in the fetal position right next to her bed:

Also, notice how messy her bedroom is. All of our girls have done this, but she is now in the stage of throwing everything out of her drawers. It's so annoying.

Then, for a last update. A couple of months ago Camille decided she hated diapers. At nap time she would take her diaper off and pee on the floor. If her diaper got even slightly wet she would insist on having it changed. I knew we were going to have to potty train- way earlier than I wanted to!

The day after Christmas, since Ben was home, we decided to start training her. She picked it up pretty well- except #2. In 6 weeks she only went #2 on the potty twice. For those of you great at math, that means she had a lot of accidents. But, I think the last few days she has turned a corner- she finally seems to be getting it. Phew! I really, really hate potty training, but we are about done potty training the last child, and that does feel nice.

Victory!

A monumental event happened in our house tonight...

For the first time, Audra was so engrossed in a book that she literally could not put it down. She stayed up after bedtime with a flashlight to finish the book.

How many times did I stay up late reading? Too many to count! I still do on occasion.

It took awhile for reading to click with Audra, but now she is a reading machine. I'm very happy for her!

Waterton

We have had unceasingly warm weather- it got past 70 today. We told the girls we would go to the zoo. But, then we discovered that it was free day at the zoo. Since we have a pass, we must avoid free zoo days at all cost.

We broke the news to the girls and there was much weaping, wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Great negotiations ensued. Claire held out, but finally agreed to the terms of Waterton Canyon with playing in the water and ice-cream afterwards. She drives a hard bargain.

 Once again we ran into some big horn sheep. It was pretty awesome- even better than the zoo.

 Playing in the water.

How did Camille get so cute?

Anyway, we had a great day. Especially because it ended with movie night of "Honey, I Shrunk the Kids." The girls LOVED it!

Princess Party

Today we went to a Pirate and Princess party co-op. It wasn't exactly educational, but I figured if the schools could take the entire month of March off to test kids, we could take a couple of hours to have a princess party.

Sometimes school needs to be fun!

Name Game

I took a Facebook quiz about what your name means, and I thought that answer was actually somewhat accurate. I am a little less upbeat than I was before I had three small children, but I guess it can't all be perfect:)

Of course, I had to do the rest of the family. Here's Ben:

Audra- this one I don't think is very accurate:

Claire- I think you might find it interesting if you compare it with mine:

Now my faith in this "quiz" is starting to wane. Check out Camille's:

Or, if these are all correct, I really really really do NOT look forward to the teen years. One of me is enough in any family.

Super Disappointing

Here is the problem with sports: No matter who you cheer for, you are going to be disappointed. No team can win all the time. It simply isn't possible. Think about it- in 49 years of the Super Bowl, Denver has won twice and Seattle has won once. That's 47 and 48 years worth of disappointments.

So why do we continue to cheer for teams? I don't know.

We had high hopes for the SuperBowl. Ben didn't want to go to a party, he wanted to stay home where he could be in charge of the remote. I would rather have gone to a party, but going without Ben seemed beyond lame- who wants to watch such an important game without your sweetheart?

We had our own little party instead.

I made some delicious foods:

The sliders are to die for. Seriously, so good and SO easy! For my own future reference, here's the recipe:

-Hawaiian rolls
-Onion and chive cream cheese
-Gouda
-Ham or Turkey
-Butter

Prepare the sliders with everything but the butter. Spread butter on top. Bake at 350 for 20-25 minutes or until butter is lightly browned (may need to broil for a few minutes at the end)

The sweet potato fries turned out great as well. Recipe HERE.

And the strawberry fluff is supposedly a Weight Watchers recipe, but I'm not so certain. But it was also delicious. Recipe HERE.

All of that is to say that the food was good, if nothing else.

I was so nervous the entire game! I literally could not enjoy the game at all- even though it was such a good game. Ben kept getting excited when the Seahawks scored or got a good play, and I would be like "Don't get excited! It's not going to end well." He didn't like that, and he was right, of course. I needed to just relax and enjoy the game. The problem is that I HATE the Patriots- so it's not just that I wanted the Hawks to win, I desperately wanted the Patriots to lose.

But, sigh, it was not meant to be. The last play of the game- the one which should have won us the game- turned into an interception and the Hawks lost.

I know it is just a game. Believe me, I know. It is just a game!

But, oh, how my heart is broken! I know it's stupid. But it doesn't matter, it still sucks. I have been depressed all day- thanks to all of you who posted happy thoughts on Facebook for me- that actually really did help!

I e-mailed Ben while he was at work and told him I was pretty depressed. He e-mailed back and said that he was pretty depressed, too, but it was helping him to count his blessings.

And, I have to admit, that remembering four of my greatest blessings does put things into perspective: